Review: A Thousand Days in Tuscany

Overview:

American chef Marlena de Blasi and her Venetian husband, Fernando, married rather late in life. In search of the rhythms of country living, the couple moves to a barely renovated former stable in Tuscany with no phone, no central heating, and something resembling a playhouse kitchen. They dwell among two hundred villagers, ancient olive groves, and hot Etruscan springs. In this patch of earth where Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio collide, there is much to feed de Blasi's two passions--food and love. We accompany the couple as they harvest grapes, gather chestnuts, forage for wild mushrooms, and climb trees in the cold of December to pick olives, one by one. Their routines are not that different from those of villagers centuries earlier.

They are befriended by the mesmeric Barlozzo, a self-styled village chieftain. His fascinating stories lead de Blasi more deeply inside the soul of Tuscany. Together they visit sacred festivals and taste just-pressed olive oil, drizzled over roasted country bread, and squash blossoms, battered and deep-fried and sprayed with sea-salted water. In a cauldron set over a wood fire, they braise beans in red wine, and a stew of wild boar simmers overnight in the ashes of their hearth. Barlozzo shares his knowledge of Italian farming traditions, ancient health potions, and artisanal food makers, but he has secrets he doesn't share, and one of them concerns the beautiful Floriana, whose illness teaches Marlena that happiness is truly a choice.

Like the pleasurable tastes and textures of a fine meal, A Thousand Days in Tuscany is as satisfying as it is enticing. The author's own recipes are included.

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Review:

I found this book utterly enchanting. Marlena de Blasi has a way of describing an ordinary day that transports it to anything but ordinary. She captures the beauty in everyday life, and of course her description of life in Tuscany are magical. Every time de Blasi described a meal, I felt I could taste all the flavors coming together; as a result I was often quite hungry while reading. I've used some of her recipes, and the food has been divine. 

Having spent some time living in Italy myself, it was nice to be reminded of the slower way of life. Reading about days spent harvesting olives or baking bread; the daily rituals of breakfast at the bar, made me long to return. de Blasi has such a way with language. She paints such a vivid portrait of her life in Tuscany and the family she creates there.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in food or travel. I cannot wait to read the rest of her books.

Recommended: Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

Overview:

 

Anthony Doerr has received many awards -- from the New York Public Library, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Library Association. Then came the Rome Prize, one of the most prestigious awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and with it a stipend and a writing studio in Rome for a year. Doerr learned of the award the day he and his wife returned from the hospital with newborn twins.Exquisitely observed, Four Seasons in Rome describes Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats -- the chroniclers of Rome who came before him -- and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighborhood, whose clamor of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.

This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood, and a fascinating story of a writer's craft -- the process by which he transforms what he sees and experiences into sentences.

 

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Side Note: Doerr's most recent work All the Light We Cannot See has received tons of critical acclaim, but it's far from his first inspiring work. Four Seasons chronicles his early writing career and his experience spending a year at the American Academy in Rome, writing.

Recommended: The Reluctant Tuscan by Phil Doran

Overview:

 

After years of working on a string of sitcoms, Phil Doran found himself on the outside looking in. Just as he and his peers had replaced the older guys when he was coming up the ranks, it was now happening to him. And it was freaking him out. He came home every night angry, burned- out, and exhausted. After twenty-five years of losing her husband to Hollywood, Doran’s wife decided it was finally time for a change—so on one of her many solo trips to Italy she surprised her husband by purchasing a broken-down 300-year-old farmhouse for them to restore. The Reluctant Tuscan is about the author’s transition from being a successful but overworked writer-producer in Hollywood to rediscovering himself and his wife while in Italy, and finding happiness in the last place he expected. In the witty tone that made him a success as a writer in Hollywood, The Reluctant Tuscan captivates those who simply love a good travel narrative as well as anyone who loves the quirky humor of Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, and Jerry Seinfeld.

Recommended: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Overview:

 

Foucault's Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault) is a novel by Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. It was first published in 1988; the translation into English by William Weaver appeared a year later.

Foucault's Pendulum is divided into ten segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. The novel is full of esoteric references to the Kabbalah. The title of the book refers to an actual pendulum designed by the French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the earth, which has symbolic significance within the novel.

Bored with their work, and after reading too many manuscripts about occult conspiracy theories, three vanity publisher employees (Belbo, Diotallevi and Casaubon) invent their own conspiracy for fun. They call this satirical intellectual game "The Plan," a hoax that connects the medieval Knights Templar with other occult groups from ancient to modern times. This produces a map indicating the geographical point from which all the powers of the earth can be controlled—a point located in Paris, France, at Foucault’s Pendulum. But in a fateful turn the joke becomes all too real.

The three become increasingly obsessed with The Plan, and sometimes forget that it's just a game. Worse still, other conspiracy theorists learn about The Plan, and take it seriously. Belbo finds himself the target of a real secret society that believes he possesses the key to the lost treasure of the Knights Templar.

Orchestrating these and other diverse characters into his multilayered semiotic adventure, Eco has created a superb cerebral entertainment.  

 

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Side Note: This book provided one of my favorite quotes:

 

“There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics…Cretins don’t even talk; they sort of slobber and stumble…Fools are in great demand, especially on social occasions. They embarrass everyone but provide material for conversation…Fools don’t claim that cats bark, but they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. They offend all the rules of conversation, and when they really offend, they’re magnificent…Morons never do the wrong thing. They get their reasoning wrong. Like the fellow who says that all dogs are pets and all dogs bark, and cats are pets, too, therefore cats bark…Morons will occasionally say something that’s right, but they say it for the wrong reason…A lunatic is easily recognized. He is a moron who doesn’t know the ropes. The moron proves his thesis; he has logic, however twisted it may be. The lunatic on the other hand, doesn’t concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars…There are lunatics who don’t bring up the Templars, but those who do are the most insidious. At first they seem normal, then all of a sudden…”  

Review: The Road Less Graveled by Wendy Laird

Overview:

The Road Less Graveled is the account of a family that escapes a collapsing economy and the overscheduled American lifestyle, at least temporarily, by following their dreams to Italy.

Part Tuscan idyll and part cautionary tale, Wendy Laird’s latest Kindle Single tells the flip-side story of expat existence, what it takes to make it happen, and how a life on a well-mapped trajectory can veer off course in the process. Laird’s beautiful prose and acerbic wit keep the book, if not her own agenda, on the right track

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Review:

If a line that begins like this: "And in keeping with the exasperating lack of class distinctions" is meant to be funny, I must have misplaced my sense of humor. Laird is arrogant, narrow minded and silly... at best. The Road Less Graveled reeks of false class. A spoiled, plain-jane middle-classer masquerading as a sophisticated jet-setter. She pokes fun at anyone who seems to have more sophistication or a bigger wallet. The "exasperated" English translations for Italian phrases become repetitive and dull.

I spent two stints living in Italy. Some experiences were wonderful, others less so, but I was always able to embrace the experience. I could accept that in Italy, Italians did things differently, but it didn't make it wrong. Laird spent the better part of the book complaining about how everything was done. For wanting to spend a year abroad, she appears ill-prepared for the experience.

. The later chapters are more reflective. Laird finally seems to be settled in Italy; however it was too late to find the family endearing. As a result their ultimate financial downfall doesn't garner much sympathy.

 I've read many books featuring Americans in Italy. Most were quite funny or inspiring. This was not one of them.

Three Romes by Duncan Fallowell

Overview:

 

In 1972 on a long summer vacation in a near-empty apartment; in September 1987 to track down the designer Valentino; in 2013 for a winter’s stay which – somehow – finds the author entering one of the most astonishing secret places in the world: three eras, three different approaches, but clearly all from the same hand. As original and provocative as ever, Duncan Fallowell takes the reader through his personal experience of the city on an eerie spiral of romance and comedy and wonder. This is Rome as you’ve never read it before

 

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Review:

 

Three Romes records Fallowell's visits to the Eternal City in 1972, 1987 and 2013. Part one reminded me of Jack Kerouac: rambling, conceptual, and slightly hazy. It felt ripped from Fallowell's diary. He was the intended audience. Part two reads as an article, perhaps for the Life & Style section for the Wall Street Journal.  Part three lands somewhere between the two. An established writer taking notes for himself, to use for a later published work.

 

Personally, I enjoyed the 2013 piece the most. Fallowell seems to have hit his stride; producing a piece that is atmospheric, suspenseful, engaging, and masterful. It was the only piece that really exudes 'Rome' for me. 1972 was a very individualized experience. An excellent example of creative writing, but not necessarily relatable. 1987 was interesting, but said little about Rome or Italy.

 

Review: Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach

Overview:

 

"In many ways, I was an independent woman," writes Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Alice Steinbach. “For years I’d made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow.” But somehow she had become dependent in quite another way. “I had fallen into the habit of defining myself in terms of who I was to other people and what they expected of me.” But who was she away from the people and things that defined her? In this exquisite book, Steinbach searches for the answer to this question in some of the most beautiful and exciting places in the world: Paris, where she finds a soul mate; Oxford, where she takes a course on the English village; Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to be married. Beautifully illustrated with postcards from Steinbach’s journeys, this revealing and witty book transports you into a fascinating inner and outer journey, an unforgettable voyage of discovery.

 

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Review:

 

I found this book a refreshing departure from travel logs that are filled with minute details of each and every person, place, and thing the author encounters. Steinbach presents not only insights into what she's experienced, but is able to step back a recognize the person she was and the person shining through along this journey. Her reflections remind the reader that some things we carry with us whether we realize it or not.

Steinbach shares with readers the experiences, memories, and observations that stand out most from her "year of living dangerously." Her stories inspire travel... travel free of obligations and expectations. Without a roadmap of vacation destinations and activities, travel becomes a more surprising and reflective experience. I can't imagine anyone reading Without Reservations and not wanting a year of dangerously living themselves.